


Bucky and Clint's Epic Nerf Gun Duel for the Kingdom of the Vents

by happybibliosaurus



Category: Captain America (Movies), Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Makes Friends, Ceiling Vent Clint Barton, First Kiss, Fraction's Hawkeye, Getting Together, Happy Tower Avengers, M/M, Nerf Gun Battles, What do I tag stuff!?, winterhawk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-26 08:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15659604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happybibliosaurus/pseuds/happybibliosaurus
Summary: “Agent Barton wishes to tell you that the ventilation system is his and only his, and that he will fight you for it. He also adds, if I may use his words, that ‘I will win because I am the most awesome and also the best marksman in the world. Suck it Barnes!”Bucky snorted. Steve would do that little sad expression he seemed to save for when he was disappointed with him if he found out but somehow that made the idea of a nerf gun fight with Barton even more appealing. Even if said man seemed to be a lunatic.Plus he needed to defend his title as the best shot in the world. Steve could surely understand that.“Jarvis, tell Barton that I accept his proposition for a duel.”





	Bucky and Clint's Epic Nerf Gun Duel for the Kingdom of the Vents

**Author's Note:**

> Based on Tumblr prompt: “Hawkeye in “the epic prank war that no one else is a part of except me because I’m awesome and the ventilation is my domain."

The whole thing was Clint’s fault, and Bucky would swear that blindly if anyone ever asked him how it started. But it had turned out rather well for him in the end, so he wasn’t complaining. 

# -

It had all started because Bucky had taken to sleeping in the vents when he was having a bad night. Steve would be upset if he knew, and Stark would grumble about him being ungrateful to his hospitality, but he could never sleep in his quarters. His room was too big and his bed too soft. He had tried sleeping in the wardrobe instead but had woken up with a painful crick in his neck, and the conclusion that it wasn’t a great place to sleep either. 

Also, the Winter Soldier part of him had decided it would be hard to defend himself if he was attacked, what with his legs being squashed under his knees, and back pushed into a pipe. So he had moved to the vents. For some unknown reason to him the vents were unnecessarily wide, easily allowing for him to move through. There were even occasional parts where the vents widened more, to the point they created room sized spaces, which proved ideal for Bucky’s sleeping needs.

It was one night as he was curled up in one of these spaces - which also seemed to be equipped with several blankets and pillows (and really, why hadn't Bucky been more suspicious at the presence of these!?) - whilst drifting between sleep and drowsiness that Barton had appeared.  
Well, he thought it was him. Bucky was yet to meet the archer in person since the guy never seemed to be in the tower, and also due to the fact Bucky hated to socialise with anyone and was actively avoiding doing so as much as he could. But Steve had told him a lot about Barton. He had said they would probably really get along, or something like that. Same humour or some schtick. Steve hadn’t mentioned how good-looking the archer was though. Messy blonde hair, cute smile and very nice arms. Just Bucky's type. Well, what his type had used to have been before. 

Maybe that had been what Steve meant when he said they would get along. Bastard.

After a couple of seconds of confused staring at each other, Bucky realised he should probably say hello. Prove to Steve that he was capable of being nice to other people. 

Instead he gave Barton his best Winter Soldier glare in the hope he would go away. 

But he didn’t.

In fact, Barton just returned the stare. For seemingly minutes, they both glared at each other in a slighly bemusing stalemate, before Barton murmured “this means war, pal” and crawled off back where he had come from. 

Bucky may had admired his ass on the way back. They was no reason why he couldn’t enjoy the view.

# -

Bucky didn’t think much of it until a few days later, when he was quietly eating cereal in the kitchen. Nobody else was around, all out on various assignments or whatever else an Avenger did with their day. Rescuing kittens from trees, and running laps of the entire city? Maybe that was just Steve though. Something told him that that wasn't how the others spent their day. He was still busy chuckling at the thought of Iron Man carrying a bundle of kittens, when something small and orange hit him in the face. He swatted it away, and stared at the small foamy pellet for a moment. 'What the fuck?!' he thought, but before he had chance to continue that thought stream he was hit again. 

“Fuck off,” he muttered, looking around the room for a culprit. There was no-one else there. Pretty sure it wasn’t an attempted kidnapping by HYDRA or another bunch of evil assholes, he turned back to his cereal only for another foamy orange thing to fly at him. He deflected it with his hand before it could hit his face again, only for a dozen or so more to fly at him in succession, repeatedly hitting his head.  
What the fucking hell?!?

Swearing wildly enough that Fury would of been proud of him, Bucky stormed up, knocking the bar stool he was sat on over and pulled out a knife to stab whatever punk dared to keep shooting foam bullets at the goddamn Winter Soldier. 

But again, there was no one else in the room.

“Dammit!”

“If I may help Sergeant Barnes, Agent Barton wishes to relay a message to you.”

Barton, dammit! Of course that figures, the idiot! Steve had once described him as an overgrown child with no sense of self-preservation, so shooting at a sleepy Winter Soldier seemed like his kind of thing. Son of a bitch.

“Of course, Jarvis.”

“Agent Barton wishes to tell you that the ventilation system is his and only his, and that he will fight you for it. He also adds, if I may use his words, that _‘I will win because I am the most awesome marksman in the world. Suck it Barnes!”_

Bucky snorted. Steve would do that little sad expression he seemed to save for when he was disappointed with him if he found out, but somehow that made the idea of a nerf gun fight with Barton, even more appealing. Even if said man seemed to be a lunatic.

Plus he needed to defend his title as the best shot in the world. Steve could surely understand that.

“Jarvis, tell Barton that I accept his proposition for a duel.”

# -

A bright red nerf gun, covered in sparkly star stickers, appeared on his bed at some point during the day, along with a note which read _‘A duel it is, good sir. First to 10 hits wins’_. Underneath was a small doodle of what he assumed was Barton firing an arrow into what looked like his metal arm. He chuckled at it, and smiled. This would be fun.

# -

3 days into their ‘duel' and they were equal in shots made. 

Barton had managed to hit him 4 times so far, silently appearing from vents, or cupboards when Bucky was on his own. He was surprisingly sneaky for someone always seemed to be covered in food stains. 

As a result, this had forced Bucky to spend more time in the company of others, eating his meals with Sam and Bruce, watching Tony in the lab and playing board games with Vision and Wanda, as he suspected Barton would not shoot him when he wasn’t alone. And honestly, he found he didn’t mind. It turned out that Bruce made excellent food and had taught him how to make a passable curry from scratch. Tony’s work was fascinating, and he was eager to discuss it with Bucky at length, and Wanda was just generally awesome to be around. The stories of her brother's antics had even managed to make him laugh, much to both his and Wanda's surprise. 

He’d also made Barton 4 times in return, discovering the archer’s greatest weakness; Coffee. For a former spy, he seemed unable to sense an enemy approaching before his coffee in the morning. How the man had once been a notorious assassin and survived hundreds of SHIELD missions baffled Bucky. In any case, he had managed to shoot him at breakfast every morning so far, and the archer didn’t seem to have learnt from that at all. 

The sleepy confused face he made each time when Bucky made the shot right on his forehead was adorable. Like a confused penguin. A fluffy bemused penguin.

# -

A couple of days later, Bucky discovered Clint’s other weakness. 

Thor had brought in yet another tiny abandoned puppy he had found – ( _Where did the guy find them? Did he have some kind of magnetic energy attracting them to him? Or was he the god of small lost puppies as well as thunder?_ ) - and Barton had gone completely soppy, petting it, and kissing it all over. Bucky had shot him in the back, using the fact the puppy was licking the archer’s face all over as a distraction. The archer hasn’t noticed at all, so he’d got in a couple more extra shots in for luck.

__Bucky sniggered at the memory. He wished he was the one licking Barton’s stupid face._ _

__Wait, what?!_ _

#  _-_

_  
_

__A week later, Steve caught them at it and let rip on Barton, shouting at him in his best ‘Captain America is disappointed’ voice about being irresponsible and unkind, and insensitive, and that Bucky couldn’t cope at being shot at yet, and really, what had he been thinking, all while Barton sniggered into his hand and Bucky crept up behind them both and landed a shot on his neck and Steve’s nose._ _

__Steve’s cry of indignation made the resulting lecture all worthwhile._ _

#  _-_

_  
_

__Clint appeared a few mornings later whilst Bucky was reading in the communal lounge. Steve was in sight meaning Bucky didn’t reckon Barton would fire on him whilst he was here._ _

__The archer flopped down on the sofa next to him and gave him a wide smile. What he had discovered from all this, was that Barton had a really lovely smile. Bucky was falling in love with that smile. It was so perfect, just as the rest of the him was._ _

__Somehow in the space of just over a week, he had developed an unbearable crush on the archer. Every time he saw the small blonde he could feel his heart leap inside and had to fight the smile forming on his face. Seeing him was always the best part of his day, and he found himself going out of the way to be around the archer, hanging around the kitchen when he knew Barton was coming to get coffee, or using the gym at the same time._ _

__But as he kept telling himself, it was just a crush. A small, harmless crush. It wasn’t as if the archer would like him back. He was too much of a mess, and too much effort to be with. So there was no point telling the archer how much he was beginning to love him._ _

__No, it definitely wasn’t worth losing him as a friend._ _

__“I have an idea,” Barton announced triumphantly._ _

__Bucky carefully put his bookmark in, and placed the book on the coffee table, before turning back to Clint._ _

__“A plan?”_ _

__“Yes, Terminator. I was thinking of changing the parameters of our battle, and combining our skills to take down the good captain. What do you think?”_ _

__“How do you mean?”_ _

__“I was thinking, we get points for different body parts we hit, and what he is doing at the time, and how he reacts. 10 points for his giant shoulders, 25 points for his head, 50 points for his groin. First to 500 wins. Bonus points if he swears at us. Hmm?”_ _

__Bucky thought about. Honestly, he no longer cared about winning this super sniper competition, but he didn’t want it to end either. He didn’t want to lose an excuse to hang around with Barton and everyone else. And something that made Steve mad and sweary sounded like a lot of fun, and if it meant he would have to work on a team with Barton, well, he could definitely cope with that._ _

__“I’m in.”_ _

__“I’ll get Jarvis to write up the official rules and to send them to you, Buckaroo. We shall meet at 1600 for a tactics meeting,” Barton responded, sticking out his left hand to shake Bucky’s metal one, before flicking the TV on to Dog Cops._ _

__Bucky turned back to his book with a small smile. He couldn’t wait for 1600 hours._ _

#  _-_

_  
_

Somehow the 1600 meeting for ‘tactics’ turned into an all-night pizza party ( _“We’re going to need it for energy, Barnes. How do you feel about pineapple on pizza?”_ ) combined with a marathon film night ( _”Battle Strategy tips, obviously!” “What do you mean you’ve never seen a James Bond? What has Steve been teaching you, Robocop?”_ ). 

__Around 2am, Bucky turned away from the film to find Clint asleep, snoring into the sofa cushion next to his thigh. The touch was warm and pleasant, and he preened at the thought that the archer felt comfortable enough to sleep around him. It showed a level of trust that not even Steve showed him._ _

__Smiling he carefully removed Clint’s hearing aids and tucked a blanket over him, avoiding the urge to give him a gentle kiss on the forehead, before closing his eyes as well._ _

# -

__He woke up 4 hours later from perhaps the best sleep he had had since before, with the archer now resting his head on Bucky’s lap, his metal arm in his dirty blonde hair. He gently ran his fingers through the soft hair, before he dozed off again, dreaming about waking up like that every morning._ _

# -

__The next day, the plan to take down Captain America commenced._ _

__Barton took to the vents to aim from above, and below Bucky silently crept up on Steve, as he was in the process of destroying yet another punching bag._ _

__3 shots each, and then to run, were the agreed terms. Jarvis was decide the best shots, and aware points once they had made it back to the rendezvous point. All points would be lost if Steve caught you before you made it there._ _

__On Clint’s silent command, firing commences._ _

__Bucky’s first shot hits Steve on the left shoulder._ _

__The second hits the thigh._ _

__The third lands slap bang in the centre of his forehead._ _

__As he fled out the door, Bucky could hear Steve angrily shouting at them, though somehow avoiding swearing at the same time._ _

__As soon as he made it back to the meeting room Clint had commandeered, and he promptly collapsed over in laughter. The sight of Steve, red, angry and shouting at him Seconds later, Clint literally fell out of the ceiling access panel, giggling to himself._ _

__“Did you see his face? Man, it was so red. What a punk!”_ _

__Barton gave him a beaming smile in return and slapped him on the back. Looking up at the oblivious archer, he decided that he was going to keep doing whatever he could to make Clint keep smiling like that at him._ _

__He wanted all the archer’s smiles._ _

__Damn._ _

__Somehow in the space of just over a week, he’d fallen head over heels in love with that idiot._ _

__Shame he would never feel the same way back._ _

# -

__Two days later, they cornered Steve in the kitchen whilst he was distracted, attempting to flirt with Tony. It was painful to watch, so really they were doing him a favour when they shot at him._ _

__Steve may have disagreed, by the sound of it._ _

__They ran off together to the shouts from Tony offering to defend Steve’s honour against those two ‘miscreants’._ _

# -

__After that, the entire avengers tower broke out in war._ _

__Tony appeared from his lab with a bright red and gold nerf gun he had taken apart and rebuilt in classic Stark manner. Steve took to carrying his shield around with him at all times. Thor misunderstood the game completely and just shot everyone at random and with great abandon, smiling like a little kid at Christmas._ _

__Bruce locked himself in his lab and refused to come out without an official ceasefire signed by all parties, or Natasha's scary presence to prevent anyone daring to shoot._ _

__And Jarvis, the traitor, shared everyone in with the rules and added them to Bucky and Barton’s scoreboard._ _

__Chaos ensued._ _

__It became hard to move from room to room without the constant fear of getting shot by a trigger-happy avenger. The only safe way, as both Bucky and Clint discovered, was to go via the vents. Thor, Steve, and Sam were too big for them, Tony not limber enough and Natasha too dignified, so there was no fear of anyone else entering the vents. The vents which had seemingly become ‘their’ vents. Barton had decided that they were apparently a team now too, and to ensure survival the needed to stick together._ _

__Well, he had put it more like ‘sniper bros before hoes,’ which had been followed by a fist bump and a gleeful smile. Not that Bucky had resisted. He was very glad Clint had decided they were a team, not just because it meant he was more likely to not be killed by a rouge Norse God ( _what was his life?_ ), but because this seemed to double the time spent with the archer. The guy was an absolute disaster of a human being, but he was a lot of fun to spend time with and never treated Bucky as a broken object, like the others had been doing. And he had the best jokes and stories, which he would happily ramble on about as they hid in the vents._ _

__And following him around in the vents meant he got to spend a lot of time staring at Barton’s rather fine ass._ _

__-_ _

__Fury came round a week later and got shot by Thor, who either still misunderstood the rules or just really enjoyed putting everyone’s life in danger._ _

__“You motherfuckers will pay for this!” Fury had cried as he stormed out of the tower, and boy did they._ _

__The day after that Fury appeared again surrounded by 40 or so junior SHIELD agents, armed with paint guns and the order to shoot the avengers with extreme prejudice._ _

__Of course, 40 junior agents were no match two super soldiers, an member of the air force, a Norse god, a witch, a genius billionaire playboy and two ex-assassins, but that wasn’t to say it was an easy fight, when they were outnumbered so considerably, and Fury was so, well, furious._ _

__After around 30 minutes of being chased by Fury’s minions whilst Clint made non-stop jokes about his employer, they found a safe access point to the vents, and climbed up before any more tiny spies with paint guns appeared.  
Panting and grinning at each other, they collapsed, and sprawled out into the spacious ducts. Moments followed as Bucky slowly got his breath back – (“I thought super soldiers couldn’t get out of breath?” Clint had joked. “Well, I got the crappy super soldier serum, so I am a crappy super soldier, didn’t I,” Bucky had retorted with a snort) – before he looked around and realised where they were. It was the vent space in which Bucky had seen Clint for this first time. The space where Clint had given him a long hard stare, and then declared war on him, ignoring the fact he was a deranged ex-brainwashed assassin with a creepy metal arm and nightmares that woke up half the residents of the tower. The space in which he had felt normal-ish for the first time again._ _

__Looking up at Clint, he realised that the archer had realised the same thing too, when he caught his eye. His smile was smaller now, but no less genuine._ _

__“Huh,” Clint murmured, pulling himself up closer to Bucky. Bucky froze. What was Barton doing? There was a look in the archer’s eye that looked like – but no, it couldn’t be – but maybe it was? Slowly Clint’s hands reached up to cup Bucky’s cheeks, pausing for a moment to check himself before they made contact, oh so gently with Bucky’s face. The archer’s lips were now centimetres away from his, when Clint whispered “I guess we can share then,” before their lips touched and nothing else mattered._ _

__The kiss was long, and hard, and desperate, but also perfect. Bucky’s arms reached around Clint, pulling him closer in, so their bodies were completely wrapped in each other._ _

__“Yeah, I guess we could share,” Bucky smirked back._ _

__He could for more of those damn kisses._ _

**Author's Note:**

> This has been open on my phone for a few weeks, with me adding and editing parts whilst i've been working and at archery practice (hehe, i wonder why i love hawkeye so much ...).  
> I am not really happy with how it turned out, as I got frustrated with the ending and cannot write romance for toffee, but I am posting it anyway because a) this is the longest thing I have written and b) I am kind of proud of some parts and c) i don't think i'll ever get around to writing a better ending for it.
> 
> So yeah, enjoy and feel free to tell me what sucks etc..
> 
> xx


End file.
